We are getting hit hard with a ton of snow! As I was heading home with Audrey yesterday afternoon, school was already cancelled for today. It started snowing early this afternoon, but didn't start sticking until around 4:00. According to FB, many neighborhoods up north are losing power. Chris completely prepared for this...he picked up a generator from his parents and did all the grocery shopping (he forgot to get any kind of chocolate though, so I made a quick trip...crisis averted!)
I can't tell you how ELATED I am about having all this time to spend with Audrey. I just love these snow days! I'm not sure when we'll be going back to school, but hopefully we use 4 more snow days (if we use 10 in a school year, we don't have to make them up...as in losing Spring Break or extending the school year.) I have to say, I do miss my kids a lot. Seeing them on Thursday (after 6 days!) was so great, tons of hugs and smiles. I hope they're enjoying this time in the snow!
I forgot to update about Audrey's dr appt last Friday. Her iron level looks good, but they suggest keeping her on it for another month. As for her back, it's definitely eczema. We started putting cortisone on it and for the first few days it looked WORSE. But now it has really cleared up! In fact, it's hard to tell where exactly to put the cream anymore :) She has tried (and liked) a few new foods this week; pizza (she'll nibbles off of mine!), potatoes, and turkey. We also tried these broccoli fries and she didn't hate them! She actually munched on them until they were really gooey, so I don't think she really "ate" them.
She just loves walking around with no clothes on, lol.
I love her expression in this picture!
Camera shy
She stayed in her PJs all day!
And here is one benefit of letting her have her own kitchen cabinet:
Thanks to a little more snow overnight, school was cancelled again. There's nothing like the anticipation of waking up at 5 am, running to the computer, and seeing the closing message atop the district's website (and we're supposed to be getting more this weekend! SQUEAL!!)
With the extra time on my hands and having the Internet back (yessssss), I've been looking into Audrey's spring/summer wardrobe. Although she loves to run around in just a diaper, I have to get her a few things to wear in public :) Lo and behold, Gymboree has come out with an Alligator line for GIRLS!! Just one of the adorable items:
And just in time for my school's spirit week in March. Chris will be bringing her on Super Gator Pride Day, so of course she'll have to be Gatorized to match the rest of us :)
Last night we were playing and her stacking rings were laying out. Now, ever since she could sit up, she would always unstack (destack?) the rings. Sometimes one by one, sometimes she'd be super efficient and just dump the entire thing over. She just did not like them being stacked. Ever. But last night she just started stacking her rings! It was pretty cool to watch:
I like how at first she tries to crawl away, but then "listens" to me when I tell her to go back (I had to run to get my camera, and of course as soon as you do that, they stop doing whatever amazing thing it was that they were doing...) Then towards the end, when she can't quite stack the orange ring, she hands it to me. Smarty pants :)
Finally, a hilarious clip I found from Modern Family...does anyone watch this show? It's one of my new favorites. The comedic timing is genius:
Usually I blog about how much I love my daughter, but not today (ok, there will probably be some of that...) No, today I give mad love to the Internet. You see, last Wednesday (6 LONG DAYS AGO) I had just put Audrey to bed and was getting ready to settle down with a little web surfing. That's when I got the dreaded message:
You are not connected to the Internet.
A quick look at the modem (is that what it's called?) and I see no flashing green light. FRICK!!
So, I go to bed, begrudgingly, and when I wake up the next morning, still nothing! Chris ended up calling that day and was told that someone would be coming out Saturday. Apparently they (Verizon) had screwed up the wiring when they had been installing FIOS. I was furious that they didn't come out right away, being that they were responsible for us not having any Internet/phone. And then of course it snowed on Saturday and they decided to not send anyone out until Tuesday.
Which brings us to today. Guess how long it took him to fix it? Less than 10 minutes.
It's amazing how much we depend on the Internet. Besides the fun stuff (blogging, shopping, Facebook, etc.) I use it to get ideas when lesson planning, recipes (stop laughing, Christopher!), paying bills, weather checks, etc. So, life it good again, I feel connected with the outside world. School was cancelled on Monday and today, so Cabin Fever has started to set in. But honestly, I have loved being at home every second with Audrey. She has just started to give kisses!! She'll kiss the baby on her YoBaby yogurt, and she'll kiss me when I get her up from her naps. Ugh...it's pure sweetness. I think this is a special time in all parent's lives, when finally all the hugs and kisses you shower on them from Day 1 can be reciprocated.
Besides being a kissing cutie, she's been walking ALL over the place. It's fun just to follow her and see where she goes. She pretty much has free range (oh the joys of having a one-level house!) She did try to flush one of her blocks down the toilet, so we have to start closing doors. When she falls down, she'll pick herself right back up and keep going (up until last week she would either crawl the rest of the way or crawl to the nearest freestanding object to pull herself up.) And she's rediscovered her love of rattles. Thank goodness I didn't pack those away...she loves walking around with one in each hand just shaking up a storm.
Isn't this a cute outfit?! One of my kids (now a 5th grader) got it for her, thanks M!!
Yes, I stalk her even in her sleep.
Dare devil.
And a couple videos for Uncle Scott, who has not so subtly, demanded more of Audrey:
A fun new game!
If you're really bored, watch how Audrey likes to put her blocks away (a girl after our own heart!)
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Not much new going on, so here are a bunch of cute pics :) Hope everyone has a great week!
Enjoying dinner...
...not enjoying dinner
Enjoying dinner too much!
She's had these rough, dry patches on her back for awhile now...getting them checked this week. I'm hoping it's just dry skin/eczema...thoughts?
Now that she's walking, I just love it when she walks towards me and smiles like this!
She loves to read...she turns the pages back and forth, babbles, and points to the pictures. Cute!
I'm thinking about doing the 365 project. I'll be doing it weekly though, so for me it's the 52 project! Today Audrey is 13 months :)
So much! She has become such a good walker...it's hard to believe that she only took her first step 2 months ago. I'm researching walking shoes to get her for spring/summer. Any suggestions?
She is talking all the time, mostly trying to mimic our words. For example, if we say, "Thank you!" she'll babble something that sounds like 2 separate words...adorable!! I'm pretty sure in addition to mama and dada she can say cat and dog (Grandma can confirm!) She also loves to point, and that combined with talking overwhelms me because I know she's trying to "tell" me something *tear*. Communication gets better every week it seems. Oh, and she's really good at shaking her head "no" when she doesn't want something...like solid food.
Which brings me to my next update. She is a food nazi! She only likes chicken, pancakes, toast, & grilled cheese. She'll eat yogurt and any other kind of baby food you give her, but when it comes to real food, she won't even TRY it. She had spaghetti once, seemed to love it, but hasn't touched it since. We've tried pasta, fruits, veggies, everything we can think of. I'm a little worried that she's so picky but not quite sure what to do about it, except to just keep offering different food over and over. But until then Gerber will continue to get a good chunk of money from the Burns household!
She is getting 2 more teeth (possibly 3) for a total of 12 chompers :) Dad brushes them every night, she loves it! She is still an amazing sleeper and I do not take that for granted. She just rolls over when we put her down and within minutes she's out. On the weekend she is kind enough to let us sleep in. I'm pretty sure she wakes at 7:30-ish because I hear slight babbling...but she will just sit and play in her crib until we decide to go in and get her. I've awoken as late as 9:00, gone into her room wondering if she's till asleep, and she's just sitting there, smiling at me, all of her stuffed animals pulled down into her crib, lol.
Speaking of animals, she really, really loves her doggies. She giggles and tries to hide from them, pets them, feeds them Cheerios...
As usual, she is an absolute joy. I don't know it's possible to love something so much!
Watching reports of the devastation in Haiti is a real wake up call. It’s unimaginable what that country is going thru and as a mother/teacher it really hits home when I see children on the street with no food, no water, no shelter. GMA ran a story this morning about a 4 year old girl at an orphanage. Her adoptive parents are in Iowa and did not know if she was alive. Robin Roberts found the child and called the parents…they even got to see her as she slept outside on a mattress. At one point she was sobbing, and that did it for me! All I wanted to do was run home and hug Audrey, I can’t even imagine what those parents were going through.
We are so very fortunate to live in this country, to have the luxuries we have. Unfortunately it takes disasters like this to make us realize how good we have it. One of the many things I want to instill in Audrey is the ability to feel compassion and the desire to give to others in need. I don’t want her to take for granted all the things she has. I’m honestly not sure how to do that though, especially when children are so egocentric. I guess I have awhile to figure that out.
Please donate to the Red Cross. Haiti cannot get enough help right now. And I’m sure like me, you will be hugging your little ones a little tighter.
These pictures are exacty 1 year apart, how incredible is that?! It just goes to show how much babies change the first year. So amazing, kind of sad :(
What an incredible day! Audrey's big party was yesterday and so many people came over to help celebrate.
Our sweet birthday babe
Some decoration pics: Her colors were green and pink, with polka dots of course!
I made a giant cupcake and 2 dozen small cupcakes, but forgot to take a picture, oh well!
With her cousins, Bella and Skylar.
Still not loving Santa, she hid behind me when we opened this one!
Loved her cupcake and made a wonderful mess
Laughing at Grandpa
She loves the Happy Birthday song:
How lucky we are to have such amazing friends and family! I know she won't remember it, but she'll have tons of pictures to look back at. I hope she always knows how much she is love and cared for, not just by us, but by so many family members and great friends.
